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As you know if you’ve been keeping up with my blog/Instagram, I’m working on paring down my wardrobe and only wearing things I really like and feel comfortable in. One piece of advice I keep reading on capsule wardrobe blogs is that you should only wear clothes that make you feel good and flatter your body. If you look in your closet and think “well I can wear this dress when I don’t feel so bloated,” then it should go.

However, I have a little bit of a problem with that. I think how you feel about your body starts in your head, not with your clothes. I have clothes that I love that maybe aren’t the most flattering thing I could wear. I wore this outfit on Monday and I loved it. The top is actually a bodysuit with snaps at the bottom like a baby onesie, and it was my mom’s when she was my age. I paired it with black jeans and it was very simple, but it felt like me. I felt good in it because it really aligned with the style I want to convey. But it wasn’t the most flattering thing I’ve ever worn. Black is slimming, yes, but the jeans are too long and kept bunching up near my knees. And high-waisted pants always seem to create a little bit of a tummy pouch even if you don’t have one.

My point in addressing all these flaws is that it’s fine. It’s totally fine to have a little bit of pudge, and to not be perfectly flat, and to gain weight or lose weight or for your body to change. Your body doesn’t have to be perfect for it to be a good body that serves you well, and you certainly don’t have to wear what clothes magazines or the media tell you “flatter your body shape.” Love your body and wear what you want.

After a two-week tease of weather in the 70’s and 80’s we’re now back to chilly winter weather in the Northeast, and I am writing this to you from the comfort of my bed and not outside in the 43° rain.

As ready as I am for warm weather, I realized I’m also completely unprepared. I don’t mean my “beach body” isn’t ready or I’m too pale, although those are both true. I just don’t really own many spring outfits. I have a ton of bulky winter sweaters and flowy summer sundresses, but very few transition items for spring. So I’m taking this time to shop for spring and slowly begin to transition my summer clothes out of storage.

Anyway, this week was cold, and this is what I wore. My family came to pick me up at my apartment for Sunday lunch and they brought Molly, our family pup. Molly has plenty of her own sweaters but she hates them, so I had to share my jacket with her so she didn’t freeze.

Really though, October is a great month, and I’m enjoying the cool, crisp weather (and I’m enjoying saying the word “crisp” to describe everything) and dressing in so many snuggly layers. I like to dress in all black so when I go home to visit my family everyone is tricked into thinking I lost weight in Paris and I’m now très chic, when really I’ve been eating an entire bag of caramel apple lollipops for breakfast every morning this month. Shirt: UNIQLO // Pants: Gap // Cape: Forever 21 // Shoes: Forever 21 // Lipstick: Nars

I’ve never considered myself a hat person. I actually really hate hats. My grandma, a true southern belle, always bought me huge sunhats with big flowers on them that I would wear for exactly the amount of time it took her to take a picture, and then toss on the ground.

But last week I saw a girl in the West Village with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a cute little black sunhat, and I caught a glimpse of myself this summer strolling through a Parisian market and wearing a sunhat. I decided to get a cheap one from Forever 21 just in case I really couldn’t pull it off. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that hats are okay. I even wore a baseball cap to a Yankees game a few weeks ago and it was great.

The point of this is that I refused to wear hats, not because I didn’t like how they looked but because I thought I wasn’t a “hat person.” I think a lot of the time we let the idea of how we should be, or what we want to be, or how we think we should act, overwhelm who we actually are. This applies to every aspect of life, not just fashion, but I think it’s particularly evident in how we dress. We say things like “I can’t pull that off,” or “it looks good on you but not on me.” And it’s true that there are certain clothes that flatter some body times better than others. You should always dress in a way that makes you feel comfortable and beautiful. But don’t let something as silly as a trend dictate what you should wear.

Speaking of dressing comfortably, jumpsuits are clearly the best. They’re ridiculously comfortable and every time I wear this one people compliment me and I can pretend like I put effort into getting dressed that day. Read my classmate Brenna’s hilarious post on why we should all wear jumpsuits every day.

Jumpsuit: I got it years ago and I don’t remember where, but H&M has a similar one here // Hat: Forever 21 // Bag: Fossil